The power of music is immeasurable, but I try to grab pieces of it and explain how they affect me.

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Perfect Songs - A Uma Gina

What happens when you mix garage rock, soul, a little swinging jazz and something vaguely tropical? Yeah, I don't know either, but a close approximation might be "A Uma Gina" by Sergio Borges and Conjunto Joao Paulo, from Portugal. I first heard this about 10 years ago and every time I hear it I love it more. It's a perfect pleading song where the singer is begging this girl to go out with him, or come back, I think, but I don't speak Portuguese so I can only guess it is. Whatever he's going on about, he's passionate, that's for sure.

Early on in the song, he mentions the Loch Ness Monster and Jane Birkin, two people I don't always think of together. That alone was enough to grab my attention. But then there's that driving beat and that organ that screams swinging 60s. This is worthy of any garage. As it builds the intensity of this guy talking about Gina (!!) and how much he needs her (?) or hates her, for all I know, it's hard not to start getting psyched. This is going somewhere good, you can just feel it. The horns get louder and the beat intensifies once and then stop for a somewhat crooning bridge before the beat comes back and eventually leads to one of the craziest endings to a song I've ever heard, with horns blaring as this whacked out Portuguese dude goes into a fit of wild animal calls, out of his fucking mind with lust. GINA!!! It fades out just after that insane falsetto jungle yelling making me wish it would go on and on, but I can only imagine they take him away in a straight jacket in a bizarre version of the James Brown cape routine. I would love to hear the raw tapes of this jam, which I'm sure don't exist anywhere. This song is fucking perfect. GIIINAA!!!!